ATLANTA—About three years ago, Bryan Kujawski worked for a search engine optimization (SEO) and direct marketing agency in Atlanta and discovered that many company sites were built on platforms that stymied efforts to get the best SEO visibility.
He met Josh Lloyd, who had built a platform created from the ground up to render Web content in an SEO-friendly manner and they created ShopVisible in 2006 to sell sites built on a platform designed from the get-go to be SEO friendly.
The company raised about $2 million, primarily from its founders and management, says Allen Graber, director of business development and himself an investor, as are Lloyd, Kujawski, and CEO Sean Cook and board chair Bert Jones. “We not only invested our own capital, we’re running the company,” notes Graber.
Lloyd built his platform in 2001, Graber points out that “Unlike a lot of companies, we didn’t spend the money on technology development. It was already developed. We used the money to go out and build the operational sales and marketing team.”
About 40 clients already license the company’s Web-based suite, which not only provides effective search engine visibility, but also provides tools for integrated customer service, back office, inventory, marketing accounting and IT.
The company focuses on clients with from $500,000 to $50 million, says Graber. “We’re not the e-commerce solution for a company just getting into it. It’s typically for the experienced e-tailer that has outgrown its shopping cart solution.”
Graber says the company is signing new clients at a relatively rapid clip. Why do clients hire them?
He points to one example: bar equipment is a quite competitive search term. Google lists about 1.4 million pages for the term. ShopVisible client Serv-U is number one in the regular search results. SEO marketing research suggests that most shoppers never go past the first set of search results and most click on the one of the top three.
“The challenge is getting people to your site,” says Graber. “We’re a little more expensive that some typical e-commerce vendors, but our service allow you to decrease how much you are spending on paid ads because you get free traffic.”
Also, he says, “We’re not just providing a shopping cart. We offer a full suite of tools to manage online business.” Shipping, for instance, can be complex, especially if a site sells a thousand products, many from third-party drop shippers.
Unlike other e-commerce providers, says Graber, ShopVisible takes a 360º view that extends well before and after a customer clicks “Add to Cart” on your site.
ShopVisible tools include email marketing, analytics, accounting, inventory and customer relationship management capabilities, all of which run up costs if purchased separately.
ShopVisible costs from $25,000 to $75,000 to implement and monthly fees vary from $1,000 to around $7,000 a month, depending on what the e-tailer sells and how it is shipped.
The 20-employee company just did a round of hiring. Graber says it is still hiring selectively but not aggressively. “We’re always looking for strong sales people with relevant experience,” he notes.
Although the company has seen some clients go belly-up in the current economy, Graber says none have switched to other e-commerce vendors.
He says he thinks the retailers who survive this economic storm will have a renewed focus on their online operations. “There are certainly going to be more retailers who don’t make it and fold up their whole business, but we’re not seeing a shortage of opportunities.”
On the Web: www.shopvisible.com